My name is Jenni Austiff, and I’m a 4th year in Organismic and Evolutionary Biology; I facilitated today’s bargaining session with the university administration. Since our last bargaining meeting, we have launched our strike authorization vote (SAV) and we have been very excited to see so many student workers cast their ballots within the first three days of the voting period. Tomorrow, I will cast my #SAVyes vote to win a fair contract with key protections from harassment and discrimination, paid family leave, year-round mental health care, and fair pay. I hope you will join me. You can see the table below for voting times and locations:
With the energy of the SAV behind us at the table, we have reached two more tentative agreements — International Student Worker Rights and Workspace and Materials. Both of these proposals are significant wins for us all.
In International Student Worker Rights, we have secured guaranteed immigration attorney visits to campus, five paid days of immigration leave, and job security for student workers who are temporarily unable to return to the United States due to immigration issues. These are significant wins not just for immigrant and international student workers at Harvard—and but will hopefully set standards for other student worker contracts. The university has also committed to convening a working group with our union to evaluate the needs of ESL students within three months of the ratification of our collective bargaining agreement.
In Workspace and Materials, the university codified its commitment to provide materials needed to perform our jobs at no cost to us. Another important gain is access to desk space for all student workers. This is a substantial improvement for student workers in some departments who are currently not provided permanent desks. We also agreed to explore providing additional private spaces to take phone calls, as has been successfully deployed previously in public health and SEAS buildings.
You can view both of these agreements on our website (above).
While this progress was a definite step forward for our contract, we continue to face significant roadblocks:
For instance, in the Discipline and Discharge provision, the administration has moved backwards on protections against retaliation for exercising our rights as workers. They made this move despite having already agreed to such protections in our Intellectual Property and Health and Safety provisions.
The administration also continues to hold out on meaningful protections from harassment and discrimination, paid family leave, year-round mental health care, and fair pay. Cast your #SAVyes vote to let the Harvard administration know that you won’t settle for a contract without these important protections and benefits.
In solidarity,
Jenni
